


Not All Birds Can Fly. Not All Shrimp Can Swim.

by Logsnake



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Drowning, Everyone Is Gay, Fluff, Gen, I'm Sorry, Mean Tsukishima, More Fluff, My First Work in This Fandom, Not Beta Read, Protect Hinata, Protective Team, Sad Hinata Shouyou, Sugamama, Team as Family, Training Camp, Volleyball, Water Volleyball, We forgive him, a tiny bit of angst, dadchi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-20
Updated: 2019-07-20
Packaged: 2020-07-09 14:27:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19889338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Logsnake/pseuds/Logsnake
Summary: During an unbearably hot day at the Tokyo training camp, the boys decide to have a little fun in the sun by playing some water volleyball.





	Not All Birds Can Fly. Not All Shrimp Can Swim.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So this is my first Haikyuu fic, so sorry if some things are off. Also, I don't know anything about volleyball.
> 
> So yeah, this is mostly just pure fluff and idiots being idiots, but there will be like two seconds of not descriptive drowning if that bothers you.
> 
> I got this idea watching Free!, then wanting to write about Free! but not feeling confident in my understanding of the characters, so then just adding water to Haikyuu! to make water volleyball. 
> 
> Genius! (Author regrets their life choices.)
> 
> So yep, I wrote this in a day. Enjoy! 
> 
> PS. While this is set during the Training Camp in Tokyo, it's also kinda not. Physically it is there, with the same players, but the characters' emotions and events surrounding the training camp are not necessarily cannon-compliant.

The gentle breeze coupled by gravity pushed Hinata the last few feet, him tripping down the grassy slope, only to end up sprawled out at its base, limbs twisted every which way.

The boy would never admit it, but for a split second, laying there on the pointy grass with one hot Tokyo sun glaring down on him, he almost, _almost_ , wished for a break. But then something ran into Hinata’s ankle, and Kageyama was just as clumsily face-planted at his side, and the world was right once more.

“Bakageyama,” Hinata laughed, pointing jestingly at his setter, who’s indifferent eyes began to twitch. He pulled a clump of dirt out of his dark locks, then decidedly chucked it at Hinata’s face.

Sputtering, Hinata spat out as much as he could, a string of drool now hanging down from the corner of his chapped lips. Yet, the salvia could easily be mistaken as sweat, given how both players were basically bathing in a pool of themselves by this point.

“What the heck was that for?!” The smaller one yelled, easily rising to his full height. “You wanna fight?”

Kageyama stood as well, glaring down at the middle blocker, and maybe Hinata’s raised fists shook a tiny bit in intimidation, but probably not.

Definitely not.

“Dumbass Hinata! You tripped me.” Kageyama scowled, looking back down at the grass as if it personally offended him. Which it probably had.

“Hah? It’s not my fault you can’t watch where you’re running. You’re just jealous because I beat you down the hill first.” With that, Hinata petulantly placed his hands on his hips forcefully, as if to prove some point.

Kageyama was about to yell in retaliation, raising his arm to slap some much-needed sense into the middle blocker, when off to the side, a condescending snicker resounded. Tsukishima ‘whispered’ to Yamaguchi just loud enough for the two squabbling idiots to hear, “Who would ever be jealous of that shrimp? He doesn’t even know any volleyball moves. All he can do it jump.”

Hinata whirled around, about to defend his honor because, yes, the point was that he _could_ jump. And if he could jump, he could do anything, even be Karasuno’s ace. However, as his mouth opened to shout these things, something occurred to the small boy. He _had_ been shouting these things, to every player taller than him, to every player that looked down on him, to everyone who would listen, and even those who wouldn’t, since the begging of his volleyball days.

Yet, what had that accomplished? People still didn’t take him seriously, or even think he was a competitor at all. The point of this training camp was to become a better player. To not need to jump to help the team. To not need to rely on Kageyama to get the ball in his hands and stay on the court for as long as possible.

As much as Hinata hated to admit it, Stupidshima might just have a point.

The door to the gym slid open, breaking Hinata from his daze. Orange hair blowing into his eyes, he turned just in time to see Bokuto running at him full-speed. “Hey, hey, hey!” He called, now playfully ruffling one half of the freak duo’s hair.

Smiling back brightly, Hinata leaned into the touch, before peering around the super-hyper player to find the wing spiker’s exact opposite.

“Hey, Kenma!” Hinata raised his hand to gleefully wave at the boy, whose eyes were glued to a DS screen. Yet somehow, Hinata knew the other boy was always paying attention to him.

Squeezing out of Bokuto’s death grip, he skipped over to his friend.

“How was practice? I haven’t gotten to see you guys play much outside of our games since getting here, because, you know, running, and diving, and all. But don’t worry, I’ll get back in there soon enough! As for now though, I guess I’ll be spending more time in the wilds of Tokyo!”

“… It’s hot,” Kenma replied tiredly, thumbs flying.

All Hinata did was grin back. “Yep!”

“What are you guys talking about?” Daichi had just finished gulping down half his water bottle, and now, with a wet towel wrapped around his neck, came up to join the rest of the team, dutifully ignoring Tsukishima making an absolute fool out of Kageyama, Nishinoya and Bokuto trying to jump as if they were on the moon, sound effects included, and all of Ubugawa High scaring Yachi to death, on accident of course.

The sun child switched his unfaltering smile from Kenma to Daichi. “Hi, Dadchi! We were just talking about how hot it is outside.”

At this, Daichi raised an eyebrow. Not because of being called Dadchi, he and Suga had gotten used to the weird nicknames by this point, but because of Hinata’s use of ‘we’ when talking about him and Kenma. Could the Nekoma setter even hold conversations?

Regardless, he couldn’t help but be proud of his baby crow, who when it came to people, easily flew out of the nest, befriending everyone with that contagious smile and determination. Fondly ruffling his player’s amazingly soft hair, Daichi turned his eyes toward the sky. It was hot, maybe too hot to be doing drill after drill outside. He worried for the safety of his team; they needed to work hard without getting injured.

Spotting Ukai off to the side with Takeda, Daichi reminded Hinata to drink plenty of water, and casually jogged over to the two men.

Hinata’s amber eyes drifted away from Dachi and over to a laughing Bokuto.

“Don’t touch me,” Akaashi sighed, his face set in an unimpressed glare.

“Aww! Come on! You know I can’t _live_ without your hugs!! I _need_ you to replenish me.” The silver-haired boy made grabby fingers at his setter and vice-captain, who easily sidestepped him.

“I’d rather not drown in your sweat, thank you very much.”

Bokuto halted his waggling fingers in favor of pouting. “Wait. You mean that you choose my physical appearance over the unbreakable bond that the two of us share--”

“—Yes --”

“NO! You’re supposed to say, ‘Never, Bo. I don’t care about drowning in a pool of sweat as long as I’m drowning with you’.” Making a kissy face, Bokuto batted his lashed lovingly at Akaashi, who in response, turned around and began to walk away.

Pushing up off of the wall next to Kenma, Kuroo emerged from the building’s shade in order to intercept the Fukurodani setter. Smirk on his face, the raven-ette placed a strong palm on Akaashi’s shoulder, smiling over at Bokuto. Bokuto returned the look with a suspicious glare.

Kuroo just winked and dragged his eyes back to Akaashi. “You know, Bo’s got a point… drowning in a pool does sound pretty good right about now. We might now have a pool, but we do have a lake.”

… “WHAT?!”

*****

What everyone originally took as a cruel joke in order to get their hopes us, actually turned out to be true. Buried behind a thick growth of trees was a small lake spreading away from a rocky beach, its shimmering waters reflecting the sun enticingly.

The coaches were hesitant to let up on the practice, but after Yachi kept overheating (whether from too many intimidating guys or the temperature may never be known), they finally relented, which led the boys to rummage around an old storage house. There, they found some inflatable volleyball nets, and it was settled.

The first-ever water volleyball match for the Fukurodani Academy Group (plus Karasuno). A game for the ages.

All the boys were jumping around excitedly, barely holding each other back from splashing into the cool waters as they listened to their coaches.

Ukai was currently staring at his phone with furrowed brows as if it could reveal all the secrets to the world. Which it might actually be able to.

“O-okay. Right. So, it seems like water volleyball is essentially volleyball, but in the water.”

Yamaguchi leaned over to lightly elbow Tsuki in the side to stop his low snickering.

“Do you have something to add, Tsukishima?” The boy quieted, pushing up his glasses as well as his nose. All Ukai did was sigh, clicking off his phone.

“There _are_ a couple of differences though, which will be important to note. Firstly, the game is usually played with one to four players, and for this game, the other coaches and I have decided to only go to eleven points rather than twenty-five. This is because of the most important point: playing in the water is different than playing on land.”

“Your movements will be slower, your feet won’t be on a flat surface, your jumps will be shorter. What was relatively easy on land will become difficult in the water, and this will be an even greater stamina test then you all are used to. Just remember, while this is volleyball, it’s also _water_ volleyball. It’s a different game. You all will have to account for that. And don’t worry,” their coach smiled, hooking his thumb into a pocket, “no one is expecting any of you to be any good.”

Ukai tilted his head towards Nekoma, who would be their first opponents, and then smiled once more before strutting away to his chair, set up in the shade of a pine tree.

Glancing back towards the water, Karasuno went to join Nekoma.

“Okay! Who’s excited?! I mean, I could jump in right now!” Tanaka roared, waving his shirt in the air. Suddenly his features dropped into mild shock. “Hey. Hey. Hey. Noya. Hey.” Distractedly, he began poking his teammate.

“What is it, bro?” The libero questioned, turning to face Tanaka. What he found was a pair of eyes, blown wide and swimming with tears.

“Kiy…Kiyoka… Kiyoka is going to have to…see us… _shirtless_.”

As the initial shock faded away, both boys grabbed onto each other’s forearms in an embrace, sobbing towards the heavens.

Sugawara gave half a smile at his teammates' reaction before focusing concerned eyes on the lake.

“What is it, Suga?” Sugawara felt a warm arm prop itself on his shoulder and tilted his head to face the limb's owner.

“I’m just worried, Dai. We can’t exactly see the bottom. What if there are sharp sticks or glass bottles or Great White Sharks? What if someone gets hurt?”

Daichi stared at the setter fondly, tightening his grip on the other boy. “It’s gonna be fine, Koshi. Nothing will happen, and if something does, they have each other. That’s what teams are for. Even if just four of them are playing at a time, they have the rest of us cheering them on. Now, let’s work on getting the inflatable nets set up, okay.”

The captain turned around, about to do just that, when he ran straight into another. “Hinata?”

The smaller boy looked up, smiling sheepishly while fiddling with his fingers. Dadchi’s eyes narrowed. “Is everything all right, Hinata?”

Those reflective, amber eyes widened in surprise. “O-oh, yeah. No. Everything’s great! The water looks... looks really nice.” He chuckled, scratching the back of his head with a smile. “I was just… wondering… how deep do the nets go?”

“Oh, well the nets are supposed to be a foot above the water. The depth is really up to the players, but since most people here are six feet or over, us captains have decided on around four feet.” Daichi responded slowly, watching Hinata’s face, which looked a little relieved by the end.

Four feet. Four feet wasn’t bad. He was plenty taller than four feet, Shoyou told himself. It would be fine. “Okay! Thanks, Dadchi!”

Smiling, Hinata sprinted back over to his setter, who was currently glaring at the volleyball, as if telling it to behave during the match. Beside him was Kenma, who was also mildly glaring, but at the water, as if daring it to try to mess with his gaming devices. Kuroo smirked as Hinata ran over, looking away from Kenma and halting his conversation with Tsukishima.

“Hey, Shrimp. Excited for the big water match?”

“He should be,” Tsukishima spoke up. “As a shrimp, he’s going back to his natural habitat. He’s much better suited in a lake then up in the air, trying to fly with all the crows.”

Hinata sucked in a breath as Tsukishima stepped a little closer. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kenma’s fingers still.

“If you were listening, which you probably weren’t, Ukai said jumping will be harder to do. Yet, jumping is the only thing you’re good at. How are you going to fly if you’re barely tall enough to stand in the water?” Tsukishima smirked, however, there was something else behind those glasses’ frames. It was as if he was asking not only Hinata the question, but also himself.

The blocker’s sharp gaze shifted away from the smaller boy and towards the dark waters. Unlike Kenma, he wasn’t glaring at the lake. Just, trying to figure it out. Then, Tsukishima promptly whirled around and walked away, not even letting Hinata scream in his face about how wrong he was. About how he wouldn’t just jump high. About how he would jump the highest, to spike and block. About how he would run the fastest, to receive and pass. About how he would no longer hold anyone back.

Eyes hardening in determination, Hinata took a step towards the water and looked out over the lake. Because there would only be four players per team, it would make sense to separate each high school up so that one school could be playing multiple games. However, they didn’t have enough nets for that. So, while Karasuno played Nekoma and Fukurodani played Ubugawa, Shinzen High would warm up in the water.

They would then come in to replace the first loser.

This, in fact, gave Shinzen the advantage, as well as everyone not in the starting line-up, as they had more time to get used to moving around in a different medium.

However, just because Hinata was set to play first, alongside Kageyama, Tsukishima, and Daichi, didn’t mean that he couldn’t handle being rushed into a game. No, he would show everyone how needed he was by _not_ needing a lot of time to get used to moving in the water. He would play his hardest, and they would beat Nekoma, and Kenma would smile and tell Hinata how much he loved playing volleyball, and no one had to know.

Hinata slipped off his shoe and stepped into the refreshing water. No one ever had to know.

Hinata slipped off his number 10 jersey and peered down at the murky liquid around his ankles. No one _would_ ever know.

To his right, Kageyama appeared, volleyball in hand. Shooting Hinata a look, to which he responded with a head nod, the setter trudged forward before getting waist deep and beginning to race towards the net, arms and legs kicking.

Okay, so maybe Hinata wouldn’t race the other boy today. But _only_ today. After the game, he’d race the boy anywhere and beat him there too. But, for just this moment, Hinata was okay with losing. He had bigger things to worry about right now, like not falling into the water. It didn’t help, however, that the lake’s bottom was rather rocky.

So, while everyone else easily swam over to their positions, Hinata just carefully crept along, never taking his eyes off of where his feet should be if they weren't surrounded by three and a half feet of water.

Hinata passed the rest of his team, all swimming a respectable distance away from the court, except for a few, who stood off to the side to help form the start and end of makeshift boundary lines.

Eventually, he arrived at his spot in front of the net, smiling sheepishly at everyone before waving over to Kenma, who was playing with Kuroo, Inuoka, and Lev. Flashing his best competitive smile in their number seven’s direction, Hinata dug his feet into the lake’s bottom.

He ignored the shifting ground beneath him, ignored the suffocating water washing up to his chest, ignored everything except for the volleyball flying off of Kuroo’s hand and over the net. Daichi pushed off, just barely getting the receive, but it was good enough.

The ball spun through the air right into Kageyama’s waiting fingertips. And then like that, the ball zoomed Hinata’s direction.

Kageyama was starting off with a quick, probably to see just how much the lake would hinder Hinata’s movements. Well then, the blocker would just have to show his setter. Show them all that no measly water could keep him down.

Hinata pressed his feet into the earth and launched off, hand out-stretched, just for the volleyball to whiz right past. To his shock, his fingertips never even got close to the ball. And then, eyes wide, the water quickly sucked the boy back down. His foot hit the shifting rocks, sending him off balance, and suddenly everything was dark.

Hinata gasped, just for water to slam into his lungs. Even in the shallows, there was no way to know which way was up or down, toward salvation or drowning. So, he panicked and desperately searched for anything to grab on to. Suddenly, a hand was tugging on his wet locks, and he could breathe once more.

“What the hell, dumbass?!” Shouted Kageyama while punching him repeatedly in the back.

Coughing, Hinata wiped the water out of his eyes, attempting a shaky smile. “S-sorry, Bakageyama. I didn’t think my jumping would be so affected.”

Blue eyes pierced into him as if trying to pick him apart, but quickly gave up. “That’s not what I meant,” he muttered.

Confused, Hinata turned to see his teammates off to the side looking on with similar worry, and the blocker felt his stomach drop. They were worried Karasuno would lose, weren’t they? They didn’t believe Hinata could help the team win. They were going to pull him off the court.

With a panic-riddled brain, Hinata turned away from his teammates and back towards the ball.

As the game continued on, both teams became increasingly tired. They had just been playing for a fraction of a normal set, but already it felt like a whole game had passed. Maybe even two. The boys were panting at this point, and somewhere off to the side Hinata heard Akaashi yelling at Bokuto that “No, you can’t drink the lake water”. It honestly didn’t sound like such a bad idea though.

Shaking his wet curls, Hinata stumbled to the back, getting ready to serve. At least from the back row, it didn’t feel as if the net was looming over him so much. However, the more he had played today, the smaller he had come to feel.

Slapping one cheek, Hinata breathed in deeply, focusing on the weight in his other hand. The weight he loved so much. The kind that made him feel alive.

With one more deep breath and a somewhat forced smile, he tossed the ball into the air, readying himself. He watched it spin slowly, the sun hitting the ball just right, lighting it up and in turn reflecting its dancing imagine onto the lake. For as scary as the water was, it was actually kind of pretty.

Hinata narrowed his eyes and jumped up.

Who knew? When he got home, maybe he could learn how to swim.

The ball hit his palm with a satisfying _thwack_ and crossed over the net. Hinata beamed, thankful that he finally had a chance to hit the ball properly, and sunk deeper into the water. Still smiling, he felt his right foot land on a larger rock. The rock rolled under his foot, sending the boy backward.

Trying to right himself, Hinata didn’t bother to look forward to where the game was still going on. To where Nekoma had gotten the receive and the ball was flying back. Flying right into Hinata’s face.

Hitting the boy’s slightly sunburned skin was all it took to send his already unstable form over completely, off of the rock and into the water.

Both the team’s eyes widened for a fraction of a second, but Karasuno was used to their little crow getting knocked in the face, so instead of worrying too much, they focused on the rebound that came. The ball was slightly off, but Kageyama adjusted himself so that it flew right to his hands. Shifting his eyes toward Tsukishima, he titled his wrists back, ready to make the set. Then all of a sudden, his hand turned, and the ball was dumped into Nekoma’s court.

“Nice kill!” The team called, smiling at how Kageyama’s dump took Nekoma off guard. Instead of showing any joy though, the setter spun to patronize his stupid spiker, who couldn’t even go one game without getting injured.

Frowning, his eyes searched the court.

“What’s wrong, Kageyama?” Asahi asked from the side meaningfully, warm eyes open in genuine concern.

The setter bit his bottom lip “Where’s—”

“—Shoyou,” Kenma finished.

Both teams looked around, though it should be easy to find the said ball of sunshine, and eventually all their gazes stopped on where Hinata had been serving from.

Upon realization that their number 10 had yet to resurface, Suga gasped. Like a possessed man, he freestyle-stroked towards the serving spot, water flying. As he moved, almost everyone else did too. People on all sides were shouting for help, alerting the other teams to stop playing. Over on the beach, Ukai shot to his feet in worry as Yamaguchi paddled over, tears streaming down his freckled face.

Just then, Suga resurfaced, and Daichi was immediately at his side to help grab some of the wet bundle he held. Kuroo was there too, pulling on Suga to check to make sure the third year was okay. The team mom wasn’t worried about himself, however, all his attention locked on to the small, limp body in Daichi’s arms.

“Hinata,” Daichi called, gently shaking the boy. The only response was his melted limbs swinging with the motion. “Hinata!”

“Someone call an ambulance!”

“Does anyone know CPR?”

By this point, the other teams had come over. Bokuto crowded in, curious about all the commotion, but completely froze at the sight of his happy, bubbly boy completely still.

“Get out of the way!” Daichi all but screamed, pushing past the mob and towards land. Ukai sprinted into the lake, meeting him halfway and reaching out for Hinata. However, instead of handing his teammate over to the coach, Daichi just pulled the boy closer to his own chest, cradling him.

Ukai nodded in acceptance, instead helping to steady the captain as he emerged from the lake. “What happened, Sawamura?”

The captain choked on his words as he stared down at Hinata’s relaxed features, eventually just producing a feeble, “I don’t know… I was right there and… I don’t know.”

“I do.” Heads swiveled to Tsukishimia, as now about everyone was scrambling onto the beach. “I think I do at least… He was moving oddly in the water, and he didn’t swim once, instead just walking over the unstable ground. He probably can’t swim. And he most likely wouldn’t have gone in at all if I didn’t provoke him to prove himself.” As the blonde finished up, his voice remained level, but his blue eyes were brimming with regret, hand twitching at his side, wanting to reach out.

Ukai patted Tsukishima’s shoulder in understanding before bending down over his unconscious player. “Come on, Hinata.” The coach whispered as he plugged the boy’s nose.

_Come on, idiot._

Ukai blew two breathes into Hinata’s parted lips, before starting a series of chest compressions.

_Come on, Shrimp._

_Come on, Kouhai._

Thirty compressions. Two breathes. Again.

_Come on, Shoyou._

Again.

_Come on dumbass._

Again.

_…Please._

Ukai pressed down, eyes sparkling with tears as he tried to remain calm for the students and forehead brimming with sweat under the dipping sun. One more push and he felt the body below him shift. Suddenly, his palms were shaking, or actually, the chest beneath his palms was.

Hinata’s eyes squeezed tight as he curled in on himself, coughs racking his small body. Water sputtered from his mouth, flying onto the grass.

Suga surged forward and fell to his knees as he hugged the boy while simultaneously helping him into a sitting position. After a few more coughs, Hinata’s tear-filled eyes blinked open. “Su-Suga?”

A raw sob broke from the third year's throat, as he smiled and nodded his head vigorously. “Y-yes, Hinata. Yes.”

The boy blinked again in confusion, looking over the team mom’s shoulder to see everyone else. Most looked happy, relieved, grateful, but those on Karasuno seemed absolutely broken.

“G-guys? What’s wrong?” He asked tiredly, pushing up onto shaking legs with Suga’s help.

His team just blinked at him. “What’s wrong?” Kageyama eventually spoke up, sounding far away.

Hinata’s stomach dropped. Why were they all so quiet? Were they mad that Hinata distracted them from the game? Maybe they were disappointed to have such a pathetic player on their team.

Hinata reached up to scrub away the tears that began to roll down his cheeks with the back of his hand. “I-I’m sorry. I’m supposed to be able to jump and I can’t even do that!” He wailed like a baby, flood gates opening inside. “I’m pathetic! All I’m good for is getting Yama’s sets! Tsuki-Tsuki’s right! But, but PLEASE!” His eyes snapped all the way open, begging for his teammates to listen. Brimming with fear. “PLEASE don’t bench me! I’ll get better, I swear! I’ll get good enough for the King and the rest of Karasuno! I won’t hold anyone back anymore!”

At that, Hinata’s legs gave out below him, trying to chain him back to the ground. Away from the sky. He was falling, falling, falling.

A pair of arms wrapped around his torso, and suddenly he was staring through swimming eyes into blue, like deep oceans or stormy skies.

He was floating.

“Dumbass! How could you say that! You think so little of us that we’d let someone on to the court who we didn’t think deserved to be there?! You think so little of me that I’d pass to someone who can’t score?! You think so little of yourself that you can’t play without the rest of us?! Well no shit, you can’t! It’s a _team sport!_ You need a team, and we need you!” By the end of his rant, Kageyama was panting. Then with a scowl, he pulled Hinata into a quick, tight hug.

Pulling back, a light blush dusted Kageyama’s face, maybe out of anger, maybe not.

After staring up at his setter for what felt like eternity, Hinata gazed at the rest of the team. To the side, Yamaguchi cleared his throat and elbowed Tsukishima in the gut, harshly this time.

The blonde scowled, peeking over at the decoy before hooding his eyes once more. He muttered, “It scares me. You’re determination. It scares me that you don’t give up. I don’t understand you.”

Hinata frowned. Maybe he had water in his ears. “What?”

Sucking in a breath and ducking his head more, Tsukishima said a little louder. “I said, you’re an idiot and I don’t understand how someone can be so stupid.” Hinata nodded in acceptance, as that sounded like something Tsukishima would say. However, one thing remained… why were the tops of the blonde’s ears red?

Still curious, Daichi stepped forward, blocking Hinata’s vision. He had a scowl on his face and Hinata’s first instinct was to step back and beg for his life. “Hinata… _can_ you swim?”

“U-uh.”

A dark shadow clouded the captain’s tan face. Abort. Abort.

_‘He wouldn’t hurt a nearly drowned man, right?’_

“So. You didn’t tell us you couldn’t swim because you wouldn’t get to play? --”

“U-uh.”

“—and then from that you decided that if you didn’t play, we would think you were useless, using it as an excuse to eventually kick you off of the team.”

“U-uh.”

Everyone froze when Daichi began to laugh, slinging his arm over Hinata’s shaking shoulder. “You really are an idiot.” The captain smiled menacingly.

Hinata was going to die. He was going to get murdered in his sleep by Daichi, that is if his mother didn’t pick him up first and then murder him at home.

Either way, he was a dead man.

“I-I can’t play volleyball if I’m dead!” The boy suddenly shouted, stumbling away from Daichi into Kuroo, who was cracking his knuckles.

“You mean to tell me that we called an ambulance when we could be playing volleyball, because you got it in your head that your team didn’t _like_ you?”

“We-well,” Hinata laughed, looking for an out just to realize he was completely surrounded by tall, buff, shirtless volleyball boys.

In a last-ditch effort, the small boy ran over to Kenma in hopes of protection, who, with no game to stare at, was currently glaring at Hinata with more emotion than Hinata thought the other could muster. “You are stupid.” He said, crossing his arms. “To think your team didn’t like you? Seriously, everyone thinks you’re a walking ball of sunshine, a smol bean that must be protected, and a cinnamon roll. Either that or they’re intimidated by you, but still deep down would sacrifice themselves for you in a heartbeat. They… We… love you.” Kenma said matter-of-factly, until the last sentence, which drifted off into the air.

Hinata’s face morphed into a constipated frown-smile, confused on most of the words that came out of his friends’ mouth but excited by how many words came out of his friend’s mouth! But most importantly, “Wait, so you guys really love me?” He hesitantly laughed in disbelief, facing his teammates, who were all now wearing some expression of exasperation or rage, as well as a small blush.

“YES!”

Daichi dragged a hand down his face, exhaustedly turning away from the first year and towards Suga. In the background, Asahi had started sobbing once more, Bokuto was peppering Hinata with kisses while simultaneously asking Akaashi if he would like any,

“No.”,

and Tanaka and Noya were promising to help the boy learn how to swim.

“You know what would be cooler than swimming, bro? Building stilts for him.”

“Oh, or what if we built him a jet-pack so he really could fly?”

“Really! You guys would do that!?”

“Anything for our precious Kouhai! And imagine all the girls that would look at him then!”

Tsukishima scoffed, propping his elbow on Yamaguchi’s shoulder as he peered over his nose at those hyper-active idiots. “Come on. We all know they swing the other way.”

All Yamaguchi could do was chuckle at his best friend, “And you don’t, Tsuki?”

The warm breeze blew by, day fading into night as light danced across the water. A chorus of cicadas filled the evening, chirping happily to the rush of green leaves and the wail of an ambulance siren racing up the road.

Slipping himself into Daichi’s side, Suga smiled fondly at his boys. “They have your eyes, _Dadchi_ ,” he whispered jokingly, which earned him a playful tug to his hair.

“Oh, shut up… Koshi… are you okay?” The captain breathed out, words almost getting lost in the wind.

Suga snuggled up closer to his side, voice light but eyes heavy. “Yeah, but, no. What are we gonna do when all of _this_ ,” he splayed his arm out, showing off his team, who was currently corralling Hinata towards the paramedics, “is over? What are they gonna do when we’re gone?”

Daichi smiled, feather-light. “They have each other. And we are more than a team, we’re a family. Hinata’s starting to realize that, and I know soon they all will. That they are connected by more than volleyball. They’re still chicklets, baby crows, but we’ll raise them well, so when we leave, they’ll know how to fly, and they’ll know how to always find their way back home.”

“We can’t protect them from everything. We can’t always protect them from themselves. But we can make each other stronger.”

Suga nodded, closing his eyes to hear the laughs of his children and the laps of the lake. “Okay, but if any water ever gets close to my little crow again, I’m single-handedly going to put Japan into a drought.”

“Okay. But you won’t have to do it single-handedly. I know for a fact there are almost a dozen more baby crows who would happily help.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! I would love to hear your guys' comments, especially on my characterization as I don't know Haikyuu! as well as some other anime/manga.
> 
> Anywho, thanks, for reading! I hope you wonderful people have a wonderful day :D
> 
> (If you wanted to know, I listened to Fix You by Coldplay a lot while writing this and Shelter by Porter Robinson and Madeon while editing.)


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